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Stakeholders recommend skill acquisition for industrial growth

By BusinessNews Staff on December 22, 2013

Some stakeholders have argued that Nigeria’s dependence on imported goods would only stop if government at all levels promote skills acquisition, which, they claimed would make local industries grow.

They lamented that inadequate support for local industries had made Nigeria dependent on foreign countries for basic goods such as matches box, toothpicks, cotton buds, water starch, disinfectants, toilet wash, stain removers, body perfume, air freshener, insecticides, body and hair creams among others.

The stakeholders spoke at the 12th Graduation Ceremony of the Centre for Vocational Empowerment and Development in Lagos.

Among the stakeholders were Lagos Director of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Mr. Yinka Fisher;

President, Association of Micro-Entrepreneurs of Nigeria, Prince Saviour Iche; Keynote Speaker and Director of Partners Worldwide; Chief Oladele Alonge among others.

“We at AMEN want to industrialize Nigeria. We want Nigeria to be an industrialized nation. We are tired of importing common products like toothpicks, soaps and other household items that we can produce ourselves. It’s an insult that we even import water into this nation,” Iche said.

The AMEN boss challenged the graduands to transform the economy by establishing industries that would meet international standards with their skills.

Fishers advised to maximise opportunity of developing the country through the Federal Goverment’s Youth Empowerment Scheme tagged YouWin project.

The Chief Executive Officer of CVED Project, Mr. David Olatona, noted that the programme was part of the church’s developmental efforts to alleviate poverty in the country.

“This is a significant phase of development in the actualization of our vision and dream to alleviate poverty, raise ethical leaders in the 21st century and potential entrepreneurs for Nigeria, Africa and the world at large. We are fully aware of the fact that we live in a world where basic education has failed to yield expected positive results and unemployment is the order of the day,” he said.

During the ceremony, no fewer than 235 students graduated in the three months free intensive practical vocational training in fields such as Bead making, Printing, Decoration and Event Management, Computer Appreciation and Desktop Publishing, Catering, Hairdressing, Production of Home-use Chemicals and Adult Literacy.

[Punch]

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